Swansea University experience-

Wales, UK 2010-2011

What a different experience from what I am used to in Canada. Here in Wales, students need to do a lot of independent reading, since the actual number of lectures per semester aren't very many compared to York University in Toronto. This has been a little challenging, because when you are an international student such as myself, you have the need to explore, see new things, travel around Europe, join extra curricular societies at Uni and just have fun with friends! Having to do independent study often, has made me learn to be a bit more disciplined with myself and organized. Although I was already an organized person in general. Here at Swansea University, most of my final exams will be worth 100%, where as in Toronto it was usually around 40% in general. Organization is the key word. During this last month, I have had to organize my studying to the day since I will have 7 finals in May/June. Swansea University has I believe over 40 different extracurricular societies that you can join. They have everything imaginable. Some of these societies are free of charge, but not all. Unfortunately, sometimes you're interested in joining the ones that cost too much for a student budget. The ones that I could not join for economical reasons: horseback riding society, sailing society, skydiving society. The ones that I did join: Biosciences society, Conservation and Ecology society, French society, and International society. I was mostly active on the first ones though, and it was great. As part of the Conservation and Ecology society, I was able to help a master student with some field research involving insects, how to map an area and place traps to capture insects for study. Also, I was able to join ARG UK (Amphibian and Reptile Group) and take a couple of field trips surveying reptiles and amphibians. We went for a trainning session that teaches how to survey these species and monitor them for presence/absence data. This trainning and field experience took place at a park called Margham in Wales.  The place was beautiful, had a big casttle and lots of cute farm animals around :D.

The courses I have taken at Swansea University have been mostly on zoology and marine ecology. I have loved everything I have learned about animals and their habitats and ecology. I have gone on some fieldwork trips. One of these was a fieldtrip for a Coastal Marine Ecology course, to a sea rocky shore, in order to study the distribution of marine species along the low and high shore habitats.  We used quadrants in order to do some meassurements and calculate the populations of these species.  It was a very interesting experience.  Animals are the best and I hope that at some point all of this hands-on work will lead me to a job that will allow me to work with them directly.

Funny thing...things are so different here when it comes to examination time-EXAMS. The exams take place in either, large halls, or gym or meeting room...but always somewhere very large.  They put lines and lines of desks and separate them with numbers and letters.  Sometimes there are up to 5 different couses being examined at the same time...cause when we arrive to the room, before you take a seat, you give your name at the entrance and they point out to you in which area of the room people from your course need to be sitting, for example:  A10-A80 Behavioural Ecology exam....the seats are pre-marked with these numbers at the corner of the desk and your exam paper is already placed on it.  You cannot touch it until they say so.  If calculators are needed, you aren't allowed to bring your own, they are provided for you and pre-placed at the desks who need them, same thing for diccionaries, you cannot bring your own.  You cannot bring your backpack, cellphone, or any electronic device, no pencil case (unless it's see through), you are asked to leave EVERYTHING outside. Also, your student card needs to be on your desk so they can verify your identity before you begin!! .....why the lack of trust? I guess they know better by experience? ahhahahahahh

My faculty- Biosciences and Environment

FIELDWORK